Wildlife responses to urbanization: Patterns of diversity and community structure in built environments

Abstract

As the study of biodiversity, the field of community ecology seeks to understand what factors govern the formation and maintenance of multispecies assemblages (i.e., how and why certain species coexist). The structure of communities is described by their diversity-comprised of richness (number of species present) and evenness (the relative abundance of each species)-and interactions among the constituent species. Communities are biotic components within ecosystems, and because cities can be viewed as an ecosystem (albeit one characterized by high-density human habitation and built structure), understanding how wildlife responds to the ever-increasing scope of urban development makes urban-community ecology an important component of contemporary wildlife science.